By A to Z Sports,Tyler Forness

Copyright yardbarker

The defense had its own issues on the day by allowing the Falcons to rush for over 200 yards, but the offense has been a bigger concern. The Vikings have not been able to make life easier for starting quarterback J.J. McCarthy, as he lost his first regular season game as an NFL quarterback. Figuring out how to maximize him should be the priority, and that could mean that head coach Kevin O’Connell does something that he hasn’t done before.

Kevin O’Connell needs to modify his offense for J.J. McCarthy

The first game of the season against the Bears was an up-and-down affair that ended really well. Throughout the game, we saw multiple instances of McCarthy showing his inexperience, which is to be expected. However, it was a constant throughout the game.

The biggest issue for McCarthy was getting the offense set. Consistently, the Vikings were getting up to the line of scrimmage, needing to rush their process to get the ball snapped in time. McCarthy didn’t get a chance to really identify what the defense was doing so he could pick them apart. It also resulted in two delay of game penalties in week 1.

That didn’t change much on Sunday night, as they also had issues getting set up at the line of scrimmage. Their organization even manifested in another delay of game due to a substitution issue.

“They told me they saw somebody step off our sideline from very much further back then and once we had made our substitution, that’s why they held it,” said O’Connell about the delay of game in the second quarter. “I got to go back and see it. Obviously, I’m looking down at the area around the goal line, but my expectation was, you know, at some point during that end of clock sequence, there he would, when they had had an opportunity to sub, he would step away and, you know, he just didn’t. “We subbed and got the play in before the head communication went out. Thought we’d get the playoff and potentially get a runoff there. Then we get moved back, we take a sack, and that sequence was essentially over.”

That’s another aspect of just having your ducks in a row, which plays into the overarching point with McCarthy still learning how to be a quarterback in the NFL. One of the reasons why there have been issues is something that multiple players have mentioned, and both broadcast teams harped on during each of the first two games: the play calls are very long.

When you are a rookie, being able to listen and communicate the play call is a much harder thing than you might initially think. It’s not as simple as “spider 2-y banana” the famous Jon Gruden play call. O’Connell’s play calls are often 20-25 syllables long. That’s just the first play, with the Vikings often having two play calls, with the second one being when they “can” the play (when they yell “can” and bring their hands up to the head).

That’s a lot for a young quarterback to handle. It’s something that the likes of Kirk Cousins and Sam Darnold could handle, having spent years in the league, but is it too much for McCarthy? On top of that, is O’Connell willing to adjust his playbook to maximize his young quarterback? He’s historically stayed with his system, only adding some minor changes for each quarterback.

Right now, there is a lot that isn’t working for the Vikings’ offense. McCarthy is struggling to get the team up to the line of scrimmage and the issues the offensive line has had have prevented them from being able to execute the vertical passing attack as successfully as Darnold did last season. One thing we know right now is McCarthy isn’t currently phased.

“There’s a lot of things we got to clean up, and there’s a bright future ahead in that locker room,” said McCarthy about his conversation at the end with O’Connell. “Just being able to all be on the same page and really just attack tomorrow, attack the meetings, attack the lift, and get back to, you know, that one and Oh, mentality every single day. So I feel like, it was a short conversation that you never want to have, but it was awesome that KO [Kevin O’Connell] have my back.”

It’s obvious that O’Connell needs to make some kind of modification to his offense to maximize McCarthy. Whether it be to add a bunch of quick game concepts, play-action rollouts, or shortening the play calls, something has to change, and it needs to happen quickly. To be fair to O’Connell, he did add some quarterback running plays for Josh Dobbs, but he was mostly asked to run the staples of the offense. Right now, he can’t operate the offense like Darnold did, and that’s okay.

The good part for the Vikings is that O’Connell understands there will be some ups and downs.

“This is going to be a process, you know, for our team and our young quarterback is going to make some plays,” said O’Connell. “He’s going to make some unbelievable throws, which a couple of those throws there that got us down to the two I thought were big time plays. And then other times he’s going to have an attempt and just miss something a little long, and we’ll go back and try to fix it. “But sometimes, the fundamentals are gonna be right, the technique you’re gonna be right. And he’s just, he’s learning on the fly right now. And there’s the way you overcome that is by the full group’s execution level, being to a certain standard that we can go try to compete and win with.”

McCarthy isn’t a veteran quarterback, and he should be treated as such until he proves during the games that he can handle it. Make his life easier, and you can grow into all the staples that have made this offense so impressive.

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